Archive for January, 2009

It seems that the NY Times is reporting that NYCT is claiming that a new passageway will be built to bypass the (A) and (C) lines platform at Fulton Street for people transfering between subway lines east and west of the (A).

With the federal money, the transportation authority will put up a new glass station on the corner of Broadway and Fulton Street, which is now a fenced-in dirt lot, according to Elliot G. Sander, the agency’s executive director.

The authority will also go ahead with a plan to build a bypass hallway in the area where the A and C lines stop, said Kevin Ortiz, an authority spokesman.

“We will be able to eliminate the maze of ramps,” Mr. Ortiz said of the station, which recorded 66,293 MetroCard swipes in December 2007, the most recent month for which statistics were available, making it the seventh busiest of the city’s 468 subway stops.

So what in the world are they talking about? I know of no existing or proposed plans to build a bypass passageway as part of the Fulton Street Transit Center project.

Subway misconception #1: The new subway train cars are automatically better than the old ones.

Reality: amNY writes, “The reliability of the subway car fleet overall decreased by almost 10 percent last year compared to 2007, mostly due to door problems.”

Reality explained: Ok, there could be several reasons for this, one being the more people riding the subway means more people holding, and breaking, the doors, or two, the doors on the old subway cars breaking more often. But the fact remains that in 2008, hundreds of old subway cars were retired and were replaced by the new R-160 subway cars. So it’s at least a good possibility that what we’re getting didn’t perform any better than what we’re reefing.

Reality: I don’t even know where to begin with this one. But again amNY provides a juicy quote: “The debut of the new South Ferry subway station, which was set to open by the end of the month, is now unclear as tests on mechanical and electrical systems in the station are taking longer than expected.”

Reality explained: Many people believe that the new South Ferry subway terminal is a gift from heaven. It’s no such thing. But that’s a whole ‘nother story. What we’re talking about here is that what was actually built seems to be a piece of crap. Reading between the lines, and from reading additional recent articles on this subject, it’s clear that quality control was lacking during construction, and because of it, there will be another delay of anywhere from one to eleven months in opening the new terminal, on top of the previous delays that number well over one year.

Subway misconception #3: The glass egg and generous pedestrian circulation space at the new planned grand entrance to the Fulton Street Transit Center were extremely necessary and critical to the success of the project.

Reality: The wonderful amNY newspaper again comes to the rescue with this quote: “The Fulton Street Transit Center will have double the retail space than originally planned.” And NY1 adds that “While the glass facade will be retained, a planned glass dome may well be eliminated, replaced with a skylight allowing the sun to filter inside. And it’s there on the inside, where the biggest design changes will take place, as the MTA reconfigures the space to add more shops and restaurants.”

Reality explained: Certain people, most of whom believe the MTA can do no wrong, ate up all the crap about the new grand entrance to the Fulton Street Transit Center, the least of which centered around the entrance needing to stand out so that people could finally find an entrance to this subway station (since that’s impossible to do right now – NOT) and so that people can be tricked into walking further than they have to above ground just to walk further than they have to underground, to get to their train. And they’ll do it with huge crowds of people, since everyone is attracted to this grand new entrance. So once again, the glass egg on the roof is needed to attract the riders, and the big space is needed to circulate everyone down into the subway. Well guess what – when the money got tight and the construction got years behind schedule, what are the easists parts of the project to cut? The glass egg and the large pedestrian spaces! The former is being replaced with a simple skylight, and the latter is being replaced with more retail space!!

Oh man, it can’t get any better than this. I love when NYCT/MTACC itself shows these misinformed transit advocates to be completely wrong.